Hi everyone, I love my houseplants but have never known much about them... I guess they're pretty forgiving. About a month ago I adopted kittens. Not knowing which plants were poisonous, I moved them all to the kitchen and have been keeping the kitchen door shut. They don't seem to like it in the kitchen, and it's definitely not a permanent solution from my perspective either, so I would appreciate your help identifying them so I can figure out which ones need to move to my office and which can stay at home. This one I'm guessing is a bromeliad of some sort and therefore not poisonous to cats? Also, do you think it needs repotting? Should I separate the "baby"? My guess on this one is dumbcane and therefore poisonous. No idea on this one. Or this one. Any advice on some hardy houseplants that aren't poisonous to cats and wouldn't mind an occasional munching? What an amazing community you have here! I look forward to learning a lot from all of you. Thank you so much! Katrina
Hi Kacl Yes #1 is a Bromelaid .. #2 is a Dumbcane .. #3 is a Devils Ivy ( a Pothos) . and #4 is a Croton .. the one you really got to worry about is the Dumbcane if u have high shelves i would keep them up on that .. and the devils ivy i would hang from the ceiling .. they might just bat at that one .. you can look up these and see if they are poisonus .. there is a couple of tricks you can use to keep the kittens away from the plants ..is use either a spray bottle and spray them when they touch the plants and mayb make a noise when you do it .. like a PSSST.. lol.. after a lil while they will just listen to the sound and back off .. .. another thing you can try is Orange peels .. cats hate them .. you can just place them around the plants and soon enough they will not go near them .. hmm the Bromelaid you can try and pull it out of the pot and see if there is alot of roots .. im guessing by the size you might have to .. and im not sure about the seperateing it .. you can look that up on the net ...there should be lots of places that will have info about that .. that is just one houseplant i dont have .. good luck with your plants and the baby kittys .. Marn
#1 bromlaid #2 dieffenbackia (dumb cane family) #3 scindapsus (pothos family) #4 codiaeum (croton family) #2 diefenbachia are poisonous
Sorry I've been so slow to reply! Marn and sidekicks2003, thank you so much for the plant IDs and advice! Thanks to your help, I found that all of the plants I asked about except the bromeliad are at least somewhat poisonous to cats. So now I have three lovely plants at work! I've tried everything I can think of to discourage the kittens from munching on the non-poisonous plants, but nothing seems to work! They don't seem to mind citrus peels enough to keep them away and spritzing them with water only works when I'm watching. I even tried making a paste with cayenne and smearing it on the leaves---the kittens made weird faces when they tasted it, but kept coming back for more. Maybe I should look for a commercial product. Anyway, thanks everyone! Katrina
Hey Kacl and fellow cat lovers, Daniel posted a link to Non-Toxic Plants and Your Cat in another thread recently. There are lots of plants that will not poison cats to choose from at that webpage. Cats seem to really like grass. You could buy some "cat grass" at the pet shop, or just plant some wheat seed in small pot. There is a product that has a bitter apple flavour that discourages both cats and dogs. You can usually find that at pet stores. Many cats go outside and avoid poisoning themselves, yet cats still get poisoned by houseplants. What is up with that?
Hi Eric, Thanks for the pointers! I'll look for some of that bitter apple stuff next time I'm at the pet store. Katrina
